Thank you very much to those of you who joined us online today.  John and I hope you enjoyed the webcast.  This discussion thread is for anyone that might have additional questions related to infrared and residential inspections.  Feel free to post those here and John will reply.

By the way, next week I'll be sending out via e-mail additional information on this particular topic to those that registered.  Until then, I encourage those of you who attended to use this thread to:

Ask additional questions related to the material in today's webcast

Network with other thermographers who attended this session

Share reports/images from your infrared home inspections

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Matt Schwoegler
The Snell Group

Our Knowledge. Your Advantage.

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I enjoyed last week’s webinar. It was very informative and confirmed some of my previous opinions. I’m an ASHI Home Inspector with Level II Thermographer certification from Infraspection Institute. My personal opinion is that IR should not be included with the home inspection.  I have always viewed it as an additional service that I will offer. I was glad to hear you mention that you often schedule the IR evaluation early in the morning when the delta T is better. With the manufactures big push to sell IR into the home inspection industry, it seems that they fail to mention the fact that many times of the year and at many locations across the country, IR with the home inspection will be limited at best. Generally home inspections are scheduled around a convenient time for the buyer or owner and it is almost never very early in the morning. Please correct me if I am wrong, but, unless you live in the extreme north or south, there will be many times during the year, that unless you can sufficiently modify the inside temp, you will simply not get an adequate delta T to do a good building envelope evaluation. I know that you don’t necessarily need 18F degrees to see something but isn’t it true that the lower the delta T the more chance of either missing or misinterpreting what you see.

 

I’ve got 4 decades of construction and inspection experience but I’m relatively new at IR so please let me know if my reasoning is correct or not.

I get this all the time. I loose more jobs than I gain because the client does not understand IR, and the inspector down the street does not either.  I hear from the client that the guy down the street can do it at any time, can see through walls, has been doing this for years, it is like x-rays, etc.  Obviously they have never been to an IR class.  I expalin to the client the importance of delta T.  They want the $100.00 home inspection with IR.  I have had this problem for years.  What can I do.  I charge for my IR.  Yes I may use it during the home inspection, but the information is not included with my report, and it is just a quick scan, unless they pay.

Home Inspection and Delta T

 

I am sorry I missed this webinar.  However life often gets in the way of training. I do energy audits and use the camera as a tool during those inspections.

I have discussed the subject of Delta T and home inspections in the past. I live in San Diego California and with the temperature outside often being 72 it is difficult if not impossible to achiever 10 degrees Celsius or 18 degrees Fahrenheit Delta T for ideal imaging.

This is especially true in summer where we have many homes including my own that do not have AC.

It is my opinion that good work can be done without the complete delta t. I think it should be noted in the report and conveyed to the customer before work begins.

I will not attempt imaging at any time of the day except for mornings. With our sunshine at almost 300 days a year I will encounter solar loading almost every day of the week. Evenings would work as well however I have a life outside of work and being self employed allows me some discretion as to when I work. That plus summer temperatures will keep the solar load well past dark on a south stucco wall. I don’t want to be in the customer’s home until midnight.

I always start with the east and south of the house to stay ahead of the sun.

I try to induce a delta with whatever makes sense which is often heat because of the lack of AC.

I have talked to John Snell about this and one of his suggestions was a portable AC unit to be used to induce the Delta in the Summer. I feel this is a good idea but have not run with it yet.  Since I am there trying to save the customer money and energy it might be a tough sell to some clients.

I think good imaging can be done if the thermographer is aware of all the problems and does their best to deal with them.

I agree some customers will not like hearing the truth about the service. This is especially true if your competitor is willing to image at any time under any conditions

I.E.  You have to open your home to me and give me access to the entire house before 7 am. You have to run the heat to the uncomfortable stage. For at least an hour before I arrive.

I will lose work I am sure because I want to give the best service. In order to do that I must do my best to achieve the standards of the industry. I will not simply turn my camera off and wait for the ideal conditions which could be a very long time in my climate.

Glen Gallo

www.rede3.com

"My personal opinion is that IR should not be included with the home inspection.  I have always viewed it as an additional service that I will offer."

  Thanks for your posting. I've seen thermal inspections offered successfully in many different ways. I'm not sure there is any one "right" way to do it. Clearly weather conditions are a challenge we must deal with. If scheduling based on weather requirements precludes doing other, important parts of the inspection, no one will win. Similarly, conducting the inspection while conditions don't work for thermography causes problems. My suggestion is to offer the home owner a choice. They can wait for both inspections to work at one time and pay a combined fee or schedule two separate inspections and pay for two trips. 

Yes, I agree that with less than 18F delta, the chances increase for missing important information. When I do work with less of a temperature difference, I try to manipulate the environment but also note these circumstances in my report. Some times it is simply necessary to come back a second time. 

I predict we WILL be seeing more bad infrared work in the future, for a variety of reasons, and we all need to do what we can to help clarify high quality work and differentiate ourselves from unacceptable work. Because you are an ASHI member, I'm sure you've dealt with similar issues in the past related to more traditional home inspection work.

Again, thank for your posting. I look forward to staying in touch and hearing of your good work. 

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Thermally Yours,

John
ASNT NDT Level III #48166
The Snell Group
www.thesnellgroup.com
www.thermalsolutions.org
800-636-9820